Creative Place Definition

We define Creative Places as multi-tenant housing, workspace, co-packing, and retail real estate projects that are affordable and target creatives and benefit their neighbors. Our definition of Creative Places is focused on physical buildings that support and enable creatives to drive community impact.

To arrive at our definition of Creative Places, we looked at how the National Endowment for the Arts, ArtPlace America, and the Kresge Foundation define creative placemaking:

• National Endowment for the Arts: Creative placemaking is when artists, arts organizations, and community development practitioners deliberately integrate arts and culture into community revitalization work—placing arts at the table with land-use, transportation, economic development, education, housing, infrastructure, and public safety strategies.

• ArtPlace America: Creative placemaking is when art plays an intentional and integrated role in place-based community planning and development.

• Kresge Foundation: Creative placemaking is a comprehensive community development approach that intentionally embeds arts, culture, and community-engaged design into strategies to stabilize communities.¹

These definitions all revolve around arts and culture playing a role in community-based work. The National Endowment for the Arts and ArtPlace consider a range of non-arts outcomes, while the Kresge Foundation focuses specifically on stabilizing communities. Additional research efforts by the Brookings Institution,² the National Association of Governors,³ the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco⁴ and others have drawn attention to the power of creatives to positively influence the economic health and social prosperity of a community.

Examples of Creative Places

• EngAGE and Meta Housing Corporation – Los Angeles, CA
• Equinox Studios – Seattle, WA
• Stockade Works – Kingston, NY